Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.221 Dancing with Alice and Lua

“Brian, will you take us flying again?” Kody asked after we landed. I had gotten both him and Anika to stop calling me Mr. Summoner, and call me by my name instead.

“Yes. I can do that.”

“Yes!” Cody yelled out.

“I wish I had wings like big sis Lua.” Anika said quietly. “I could fly whenever I wanted.”

“If you train long and hard, you might be able to grow a pair. You should ask Ria about it. She has a skill that can be used for that.” I informed Anika. 

“Really? Where is she? I’ll go find her.” Anika said and rushed off.

“Wait for me!” Cody called out and ran after her.

… those two make for a good couple. Well, they will when they grow up. Childhood friends don’t usually win, but let’s hope they can do it. I’m sure they can.

“What is with that grin?” Lua asked. I didn’t even notice she had approached. 

“Nothing. I’m just glad I was able to make them happy with something so simple.”

“I don’t think anyone but you would call letting them ride a dragon simple.”

“It’s my blessing and curse. But what are you going to do? Dragons are amazing.”

“... they are quite … majestic.” Lua admitted. “But they can also be scary.”

“... yeah. I guess I can see that.” I agreed. “But those two things kind of come hand in hand. Dragons are majestic because of their strength, size and their ability to fly. But that also makes them scary.”

“... yes.”

Since this conversation was over, I changed the subject. “Lua, I’ll have to hold a little dance practice session for Alice. Would you join us?”

“Dance? Why?”

“For the Earl’s birthday party. Apparently, there will be some sort of evening party and dancing will be a part of that, so at least Alice and I need to be able to dance.” I told her. “Also, while I won’t force you, I’d like it if you came as my partner for the party. And I want to dance with you at the party.”

“I … I … Am I even allowed to? Will it be fine?”

“Of course it will. If it’s not, I’ll burn the entire city to the ground for insulting you.”

“You shouldn’t joke about something like that, since you can actually do it.”

“... yeah. Sorry. But still, if you are denied, then I won’t go either. That much I can promise.”

“... what if I say no?” Lua asked.

“Then I will accept your position and go alone.” No, I won’t mind control her to force her to go. Or use something like Change of Heart on her. 

Change of Heart, huh. What a card. The ability to change someone’s opinion on something, no matter how strongly they feel about it. Sure it might not be direct mind control, but honestly, it might be even better.

“... then, if I learn to dance, before the birthday, I’ll come with you.” Lua offered. “Is that fine?”

“Yes. Of course. I’ll do everything in my power to teach you, alright?”

“... alright. I’ll train.” Lua agreed. “... but what about my dress? Won’t I need something … more for a noble’s party? And what about my wings?”

“You should keep your wings out.” I told her. “And what is a dress problem when you can literally make new ones with your skill. And I can give you the materials with my spell. We’ll just work out how it should look in the factory, find a monster whose clothes to use as the base, and go from there.”

“... You make it sound so simple. And are you sure my wings won’t cause a problem?”

“They might. But we will just deal with the problems as they come up, right?”

“... Why does your brain work like that? You make this sound so simple.”

“Because it is? No reason for it to be complicated.”

---

“Alice, ready for your dance lesson?” I asked.

“... do we really have to?” 

“It is the lesser of two evils. You can say no, but I will tell Ellanora. And I don’t think you’ll like what she has to say about it.”

“... alright.” Alice agreed. “But I don’t have any sort of dress with me. And I don’t think this village has a dance floor. So where will we do it?”

“You don’t need those for practice.” I told her. “You can dance anywhere. And if you really need a dance floor, I can make one. Probably.”

As I said that, I opened my collection and began pulling out cards. 

“First of all, Legendary Flame Lord, Granmarg the Rock Monarch.” I summoned the duo for yesterday. No, they won’t actually have anything to do with the dancing. They will be completing the blacksmithing forge. But first, I’ll ask Granmarg for one thing. “Granmarg, can you flatten and harden the ground in this area, so we can use it as a dance floor?”

“Of course, Master.” My golem monster thing responded.

The golem quickly used some magic to do what I asked, and we now had a stone dance floor before us. Let’s just hope it isn’t slippery, as a smooth stone surface can be. I don’t think Granmarg would make that kind of a mistake, as I said we will use it for dancing, but I might be wrong as well.

“Thanks Granmarg. I left the forge materials over there, so can you do go and try to finish it? Also, if you need anyone else, come ask.”

“Yes Master. We shall get it done.”

The two of them walked off to a corner of the village, which might not even be a part of the village. It’s hard to say, because the village doesn’t really have an outer wall. 

“Should I ask?” I heard Alice asking Lua.

“Don’t bother. You know the explanation he will give.” Lua answered her.

“Now then, for the music.” I said. “I activate Polymerization. I fuse together Lady of Faith and Witch of the Black Forest. I fusion summon Musician King.”

A reasonably tall shirtless male appeared, holding a guitar. 

“Master, what may I play for you?” He asked.

“We’ll need some dance music. As in, ball dancing. I’m sure you can play that as well, right?”

“Hmp. Naturally. Even if it isn’t my usual style.” Musician King answered, seemingly annoyed that I questioned his skill. I really didn’t. I trusted that he could do it. I more so taunted him so he would do his best.

“Brian. A quick question.” Alice spoke up.

“Yeah, what is it?” I asked.

“How did two female monsters become a male monster?”

“... don’t ask. I really don’t know. It just works like that sometimes.” 

Now then, one more monster to summon. “I summon Spirit of the Harp.”

With our music present, it was time for our dance practice to begin.

I danced first with Alice. Just to show Lua the basic steps and everything. Then I switched to dancing with Lua and summoned Kagemusha of the Blue Flame to dance with Alice. 

I haven’t summoned Kage in a long time. Mainly, because he really isn’t that strong. But he is useful. As the body double of the Ruler of the Blue Flame, he is quite skilled in multiple things. Dancing is one of them. Sure he is no dance instructor, but he can still dance. Probably better than I can.

Alice got a bit annoyed that I pushed her to the side, so I had to compromise a bit. Every other dance I would have with Lua, and the other with Alice, alternating between the two girls. 

Alice, stop trying to make me a harem man. I really don’t know if I could do it.

… I guess this is as good of a time as ever to speak about that. Polygamy is absolutely legal in this country. As long as you have the money to support your family, you can have as many wives as you want. Or husbands. Reverse harems are something some ladies like to have. 

---

“Lua, I think you should switch to your dress. It should be closer to what you will wear if you come to the party.” I said, as I started my second dance with her. Yes, technically she is currently wearing a dress, but her other one is much closer to a party dress, while this one is like a travel/adventuring dress.

She didn’t really struggle, I think partly because she was great at following someone’s lead. So as long as she had a confident leader, she could dance with them fine. I think. But I can already say that she is better than Alice, because Alice herself tries to take the lead in a dance, instead of following.

“... if you say so.” Lua agreed. She took two steps back, before a soft darkness engulfed her. It wasn’t aggressive or imposing, like something like Alice’s shade is, but just something to prevent you from seeing what is behind it. A few seconds later the darkness disappeared and Lua was standing there in her black and purple dress.

“Ho-How did she do that!?” Alice yelled out.

“A skill she has.” I just answered.

“And she has wings? When? She didn’t have them previously.”

“I - I got them when I evolved.” Lua answered.

“Really? Will I also get wings when I evolve?” Alice asked.

“No clue. You might, you might not.” I answered. “Speaking of, did anything strange happen to your status? You did reach level 50, right? You didn’t evolve so you might have gained a new skill or one of your skills might have leveled up. Did you notice anything this morning?”

“... I woke up a bit late, so I didn’t check it before breakfast… and I forgot to do it later, because I was excited that I’ll get to fly a dragon today…” Alice answered.

“Then why not go ahead and check it now, before the next song.” I said.

After a bit, Alice informed us of what she saw.

“... I have a new skill.”

“Nice. What is it?” I instinctively asked, before quickly adding. “You don’t actually have to tell, if you don’t want.”

“No. I’ll tell. It’s an extra skill called Mana Flight.” Alice said.

“... wow.” Is all I could say. A flight skill. I wonder, is it the same kind of flight that Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl use? It probably is, right? Considering what both Genesis Vampire Lord and Guardian Angel Joan said. And Alice is learning from DMG, so getting her flight skill isn’t that strange.

“Mana flight? … you can fly?” Lua asked.

“... I think so. The skill says I can fly by propelling mana from my body.” Alice informed us. “I’ll try right now!” 

“Miss,” Kagemusha interrupted. “We are still in the middle of a dance lesson, so how about after that?”

“But…”

“He is right, you know.” I agreed with Kage. “Let’s dance a few more songs first. Then we can practice some other stuff.” I know I have to practice swordsmanship, or my monsters will be disappointed with me. And space magic as well, but Cosmo Queen doesn’t really push me the same as my swordsmen, and women, do.

---

After another few dances, I decided to call our lesson good. Kagemusha was surprisingly good at dancing with Alice, likely because he knew better how to let her lead, so Alice was doing quite well. Sadly, that isn’t the norm, so this might have actually been bad, as whenever I danced with her, we would still both try to lead and that just resulted in bad stuff.

Before we began our next practice session, I quickly went and checked on the duo making my forge. But they were still building it up and claying it, so I just left them to it.

“Now then. I’m going to practice with my sword for a bit.” I informed the girls. “What about you? Alice, you can summon Mana, or I can summon one of the even stronger spellcasters to help with practicing your new skill if you want. And Lua, will you practice magic? Or maybe try out your mace?”

“Let’s all practice with close range weapons!” Alice called out.

“... you don’t even have one.” I pointed out.

“Lend me one.” She said. “You took all of the ones we got in the dungeon.”

That’s true. A lot of the challenge room drops we got in the dungeon two days ago ended up in my storage. But only if the person that challenged the room didn’t want to keep it. Because of that, I had a few swords, axes, knives and shields in my storage.

“Sure. Do you want a sword or an axe?”

“... hmm. Do you have a sword with a long handle?” Alice asked.

“A swordstaff? Not on hand, no.”

“... could you make me one?” Alice asked.

“Maybe. After the forge is ready. Make one that doubles as a staff for casting spells, like Dark Paladin has.”

“Dark Paladin? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that monster.” Alice commented.

“I guess I was with Lua when I summoned him.” Yeah. It was when we were getting blood for the villagers before our first visit.  “Here, take a look.” I said, after I got the card out of the collection and showed it to Alice.

Dark Paladin’s weapon is more or less a . Some might call it a , but the blade of his weapon is so thick that it really is closer to a fauchard. But at the same time, there really isn’t a real world equivalent to some of these fantasy weapons, because the fantasy versions are just way too large and unwieldy. 

“Yes. Just like that. Could you make me one? I’ll pay for it.” Alice asked.

“Yeah. I think I can. It can be the first thing I make with the forge.” I told her. “... I just don’t know how expensive it will be. I guess that will depend on what materials it is made from. I’ll also have to ask someone like Dark Sage for the staff structure… make sure the blade won’t interrupt the flow of magic…”

“I get it! It will be difficult. But you can do it, can’t you?” Alice asked.

“... who do you think you are talking to?” I asked. “Of course I can do it. I think. I just have no idea how difficult it will be. If only you had a skill like Lua it would be so much easier.”

“Skill? What skill?”

“Forget it. It isn’t a skill you can gain, so it doesn’t matter.”

“... fine. Then I’ll just get a skill of my own. My own unique skill!” Alice declared.

… did she realize Lua’s clothes changing skill is a unique skill? Well, whatever. Alice hasn’t told anyone that Lua has the system support, so I think she can be trusted with the info of Lua’s unique skill as well. Not that I will give her all of the details.

“Good luck.” I said to Alice. Other than my card installs, the only way I’ve seen people get unique skills are thanks to their system support. Both my Pack Opener and Lua’s Dhampir Princess are from that.

(Actually your Pack Opener predates me.) Laura specified. (You gained it when you eliminated the dungeon and the system gave me to you to keep an eye on that skill.) 

(... alright. So the system is a stalker. I guess that does explain some of your … tendencies.) I responded.

So it isn’t that I gained Pack Opener because of Laura, but that I gained Laura because of Pack Opener. … I do have a dungeon to eliminate. Maybe having Alice do that would give her a unique skill?

… probably not. If it was guaranteed, rogue dungeons would be a super hot commodity on the market. Everyone would want one, no matter the price.

“But back to practice. Alice, if you really want a weapon like that, this might be the best for you to practice with.” I said, as I got a bronze pole out from my storage. It is the one I got back when we went through the challenge rooms with Diamond Sword. 

“... it's just a metal pole.” Alice complained a bit.

“I can have Kotetsu hammer one end of it into a blade. Or attach a short sword to it. That should suffice, right?” I offered. “And it is just a practice weapon.” I added.

“... I guess it is fine then. Thanks, Brian.”

I looked back to Lua and she had changed into her adventuring dress and was holding her mace. I also got out my sword and searched the collection for the monsters I would use for our instructors today.

Practice never ends.